2014 (Production)

2014-03-07 (Production)

English (Original)

Interviewee: Willard Huyck
Interviewee: Gloria Katz
Interviewer: Sienna McLean LoGreco

Professional production

United States

Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz are interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco on March 7, 2014 at the Linwood Dunn Theater. This is a co-production with the Writers Guild Foundation and AMPAS Visual History Program. They discuss their Los Angeles upbringings and respective experiences studying film at UCLA and USC in the 1960s, recalling how they met, married, and began writing together. They detail the ups and downs of working in the studio system with friends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Their work from AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) to RADIOLAND MURDERS (1994) is discussed fully, including several unproduced projects.

Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz are interviewed by Sienna McLean LoGreco on March 7, 2014 at the Linwood Dunn Theater. This is a co-production with the Writers Guild Foundation and AMPAS Visual History Program. First, Gloria Katz describes her childhood in Los Angeles, her “outcast” status at Beverly Hills High School, and subsequent studies at UC Berkeley and UCLA, where she was drawn to the male-dominated cinema studies department and began creating experimental films. Although UCLA’s arts programs were proliferating, Katz recalls feeling certain she would never land work in the film industry. She says that meeting Willard Huyck was instrumental in her decision to continue her efforts.

Willard Huyck describes his childhood in the Valley sneaking onto nearby film studio ranches and sweeping floors on sets at Warner Bros. Born to a right-wing Republican father of the same name, he laughs about various identity mishaps and recalls family trips to the movies. At USC, he describes his ‘conversion’ to film scholarship and absorbing French and Italian experimental cinema during a year abroad in Paris, an experience that would inspire the film FRENCH POSTCARDS (1979) which he also directed. He recalls meeting his wife Gloria as well as future friends and collaborators, such as John Milius, Curtis Hanson, George Lucas, Sam Arkoff, Peter Bogdanovich, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Huyck says that shortly after he started courting Gloria, he began active duty in the Army Reserves to avoid the Vietnam draft. He describes subsequently working for Larry Gordon at AIP as a script reader, and writing THE DEVIL’S 8 (1969) with Milius, for which he received his first screen credit and membership in the Writers Guild of America, West.

For the rest of the visual history, Katz and Huyck are interviewed jointly. They discuss the beginning of their partnership, and describe their collaborative writing process. The pair’s chemistry and sense of humor lend much to their extended discussion of 1970s’ Hollywood, which includes a multitude of anecdotes and critical commentary on the nature of screenwriting and the changes they’ve experienced in the industry. The couple recall working variously as writers, producers, directors and consultants on films, such as AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), MESSIAH OF EVIL (1974), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984), BEST DEFENSE (1984), HOWARD THE DUCK (1986) and RADIOLAND MURDERS (1994). The pair frequently address their unproduced screenplays, delving into never-completed pet projects, such as a script about the Pullman Porter union strike in 1894 and an adaptation of Michael Dorris’s A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER. Katz and Huyck also talk about their work with the Writers Guild, discussing credit arbitration issues and service on various arts committees. Their frank discussion of successes and failures is thoughtful and often comical, and they provide sharp insights into the writing process.

Willard Huyck (born 1945) is a screenwriter, producer, and director known for collaborating with his wife, Gloria Katz, and their work with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Huyck met Lucas while they both studied cinema at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. In the late 1960s, Hyuck worked as a reader at American International Pictures and became the assistant to VP Larry Gordon. He earned his first screen credit on THE DEVIL’S 8 (1969) co-written with John Milius. In 1970, Huyck and Katz made a deal with Coppola to write scripts for American Zoetrope. The pair went on to collaborate on several iconic films, INCLUDING AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), for which they received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Films the couple made together feature themes of mystery and adventure, including MESSIAH OF EVIL (1974) INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984) and RADIOLAND MURDERS (1994).

Gloria Katz (1942-2020) was a screenwriter best known for collaborations with her husband Willard Huyck on AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) and INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984). She attended UC Berkeley and earned a masters in film production at UCLA. In 1970, Katz worked at Universal, editing education films before beginning to write with Hyuck. The couple made a deal with Francis Ford Coppola to write scripts for American Zoetrope. Films the couple made together feature themes of mystery and adventure, including MESSIAH OF EVIL (1974) HOWARD THE DUCK (1986) and RADIOLAND MURDERS (1994). The couple received an Academy Award nomination for their screenplay for AMERICAN GRAFFITI. Katz was a founding member and chair of the Los Angeles Photographic Arts Council.

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